Exceeding Enrollment Goals with Meta Ads

DC Scholars student featured in the campaign

Case Study: DC Scholars Public Charter School

Campaign Duration: February 28 - March 3, 2025

Platform: Meta Ads Manager

Service: Paid Digital Advertising Strategy & Execution

The Problem

With the MySchoolDC enrollment deadline approaching, DC Scholars Public Charter School was seeking a boost in applications for the 2025-2026 school year. While the school had recently made academic gains, was performing in the top tier of schools in the surrounding community on the OSSE School Report Card, and maintained strong academic and extracurricular programs, they needed to get that message in front of more prospective families. The challenge was cutting through the noise in a competitive enrollment environment and ensuring that families in Ward 7 and surrounding communities knew about DC Scholars and how to apply.

The Solution

Frontwood Strategies partnered with DC Scholars to execute a targeted Meta ad campaign that would drive qualified traffic to the school’s enrollment page. The campaign aimed to leverage the school’s strong performance ranking and student success story to motivate parents and caregivers to act before the enrollment deadline. The strategy focused on precision targeting, attention-grabbing creative, and cost-effective delivery.

The Approach

The campaign launched across Facebook and Instagram with two creative assets: a video highlighting DC Scholars’ community and a static post promoting its top-tier OSSE ranking. Ads were served to adults ages 25-45 in key DC zip codes, with a focus on parents of school-age children. Targeting also included interests like early childhood education, school choice, and local parenting groups. The content emphasized the school’s academic results, supportive environment, and small class sizes, paired with a clear call to action to apply now.

DC Scholars partnered with MatterLab to lead focus groups with community members, parents, and students, listening closely to what they love about the school and testing key messages. Their feedback helped us sharpen our communications, emphasizing DC Scholars’ PS–8th grade model and clearly defining what it means to develop scholars.

The Results

The campaign successfully delivered a strong clickthrough rate and brought a significant number of new visitors to the enrollment page at an efficient cost per click. Even in a tight time window and with a modest spend, the ads outperformed expectations, generating meaningful engagement that translated to conversions. DC Scholars surpassed its enrollment goal of 470 students and enrolled a total of 510 students for the upcoming school year.

Campaign Impact

The spike in interest driven by the campaign resulted in a surge of new applications, pushing enrollment beyond capacity. In response, DC Scholars hired additional staff and acquired new classroom furniture to accommodate the increase, an extraordinary outcome during a year when many schools were facing declining enrollment due to falling birth rates. 

This campaign proved that with the right message, delivered to the right audience at the right time, even a short-term ad push can have lasting, transformative impact.